Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 106774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
“Our cabin, but semantics.”
My heart swells, filling with more love than I ever could’ve imagined having for anyone. I don’t deserve Gray Adler—even though he says that about me. I don’t know what the future holds, exactly, but I do know one thing: it’ll be with him.
“Fine,” I say, tossing my bag in my car. “Stupey’s is what’s for dinner.”
“Great.”
“Great.” I kiss his cheek. “I’ll see you at your house?”
“Sure. See you at home.” He turns away before I can correct him. “Oh, Astrid?” He grabs his cock through his pants. “No car chess. Straight inside. Got it?”
I laugh. “Bet I beat you home.”
“Home, huh?”
I blush. “Yeah, home.”
His smile stretches from ear to ear as he reaches for me. I fall happily into his arms—right where I’m supposed to be.
EPILOGUE
Astrid
The crowd is electric.
“Roy-als! Roy-als! Roy-als!” I yell along with over half of the eleven-thousand people watching the championship game between the Royals and the Bulldogs.
The stadium is packed. Even the overflow areas are filled with rugby fans, many of them wearing Adler on the back of their jerseys. It took me a moment to get my bearings this afternoon when I saw the outpouring of love for Gray. He always has fans at games, but nothing like this. I hope he takes a second to appreciate it today.
“Do you have any idea what’s happening?” I ask Hartley, not sure if he can hear me over the roar around us. I twirl my star earring and watch the chaos below us. I have no idea what’s going on. I need to watch a movie about rugby before next season.
He chuckles. “Yes. We’re in a good spot.”
I glance at the scoreboard, wondering if I should point out that it’s still 21-21 and time is winding down. It seems like a legitimate time to be nervous.
“Let’s go, Adler!” Hartley shouts, but there’s no way in the world Gray can hear him. I can barely hear myself think.
Gray searched the stands until he found our little posse before the game began. I will never forget the look in his eyes as they grazed over the line of bodies there to cheer him on. Audrey, Gianna, and I sit in a line in Adler jerseys that Audrey added glitter and sparkles to, so we stand out. Hartley, Jasper, and Cathy met us here. Thanks to another surgery on his shoulder, Brooks is the only one missing.
“I’m so stressed,” Audrey says, chewing on a nail. “I don’t know what to yell or when to cheer. I just wait for you to do it, and I join in.”
I keep my eyes on number nine on the pitch. “I’m waiting on Hartley, so no judgment here.” Hartley whistles, clapping and shouting as a Royals player speeds down the grass. “Yay! Go faster!”
“Did you just say ‘go faster’?” Gianna asks, laughing.
I cringe as the player gets knocked down by a huge Bulldog and is shuffled to yet another Royal. “I’m not cut out for this.” I peer over the guy in front of me to try to find Gray again. “Come on, guys!”
“Go, Gray!” Cathy shouts, shaking her purple and gold pompom.
There’s less than a minute left. The tension is thick in the stadium, with the crowd on their feet as if their leaning and dodging tackles from the stands will help the guys on the field. I do my part just in case there’s rugby magic that I don’t know about.
“Here we go.” Hartley bumps my arm, his eyes glued to the pitch. “Astrid, you better be watching.”
“Watching what?” My heart pounds as I bounce on my toes. “What are we looking at?”
Number two from the Royals throws it into a group of players from both teams, which feels like a terrible plan but no one else seems panicked about it. He falls to the ground and Gray picks the ball up and shuffles it out to another purple jersey.
I yell, clasping my hands tightly in front of me. Ten seconds left.
Our player bursts down the field, causing the crowd to erupt. A blue jersey finally cuts in front of him just before the tryline, forcing our guy to make a decision. I think he’s going to cut it to the left. His body moves that way, as does the blue jersey. But the ball flies to the right … into the arms of Gray.
Oh my God. “Go, Gray!”
Audrey clutches my arm, her nails biting into my skin. “Go, Gray!”
He races forward, splitting two blue jerseys, before he leaps across the tryline on his stomach.
I scream, jumping up and down, as the time hits zero. Gianna and Audrey form a group hug, all of us bouncing around too much to do much but knock a beer out of a guy’s hand who was sitting beside Gianna.
“Roy-als! Roy-als! Roy-als!”
We join in the chant, tears streaming down my face as I watch Gray run around the pitch in celebration with his teammates.